Shipping giant CMA CGM signs deal for Cuba logistics hub

By The Wall Street Journal

By Robbie Whelan

French shipping giant CMA CGM SA announced Monday (May 11) that it had entered an agreement with the government of Cuba and Cuban company Almacenes Universales SA to build a logistics hub at the Cuban port of Mariel as part of the largest infrastructure investment the island nation has seen in decades.

CMA CGM, the world’s No. 3 container ship operator by capacity, will help back the hub, about 30 miles west of Havana, for the warehousing of import and export goods, distribution of shipping containers and storage of both full and empty containers at the port.

French President Francoise Hollande
French President Francoise Hollande

The seaport is being financed by the Brazilian government. The first section of the port opened early last year, and received 57 ships carrying just 15,000 containers in total during its first six months of operation. The port is being equipped to handle so-called post-Panamax ships, the larger vessels that will only be able to pass through the Panama Canal as is, once the waterway’s expansion is completed in December, 2015.

The Mariel project is slated to include about 130,000 square feet of warehouse space and 177 cubic feet of refrigerated storage.

“The platform of Mariel’s is a first step in Cuba’s land logistics development,” Mathieu Friedberg, a vice president with CMA CGM, said in a written statement.

The agreement came during a visit to Havana by French President Francoise Hollande, who became the first French president in modern times to visit the nation. The pact between the French and Cuban companies was signed Monday in the presence of Hollande and France’s Minister for Foreign trade, Mattheias Fekl, according to a news release.

With 445 vessels and 12.2 million containers shipped in 2014, CMA CGM is the world’s third largest container shipping company. The company has been focused in recent years on expanding internationally, including the opening of offices in six new countries in 2014 and its acquisition last month of a stake in Indian company LCL Logistix.

(From The Wall Street Journal)